Petar Zegura, Moreau Catholic social Studies Teacher, utilizes an online resource,
Kiva, to teach
principles related to loaning money.
E
conomics is often a very theoretical topic. The wellknown economic thinkers of the world, ranging from Karl Marx (1818-1883) and John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) to Milton Friedman (1912-2006) and even Ben Bernanke (1953-present), offer a variety of points of view regarding economic theory. But what do these mean to our lives today? With regard to the practical side of economics, Moreau Catholic Social Studies teacher Petar Zegura utilizes an original approach to teaching high school students (or anyone for that matter) economic principles related to micro lending by using Kiva. For the past four years, Zegura has been offering Moreau students a popular way to try a real-world means of making a difference in a global sense: providing small (“micro”) loans to individuals throughout the developing world in a hands-on approach to alleviating poverty by helping people to help themselves. Students taking economics (every senior) each donate
www.kiva.org
$5 to this project. Thus far 853 students have contributed $3890 to the Moreau Lending team. After the recipients have repaid the short-term loans, the money is then rolled over or re-loaned- in other words, reinvested into assisting someone else. Currently the economics classes have provided 441 loans to individuals in 52 countries, totaling $12,225, more than a threefold return on the original donations. Kiva is known throughout the world as an innovative successful Internet start-up, originated by Stanford students, and now based in San Francisco. It was the first internet-based micro-lending company in the world. According to their website, Kiva is a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the Internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world. They have given out over $527 million in loans, working with over 1,000,000 lenders in 73 countries around the world. Today, those lenders
include the students of Mr. Zegura’s Social Studies class. Moreau is one of 444 high schools worldwide, to have used Kiva to provide small loans to better lives. For example, Moreau Students have helped to purchase livestock, seeds for crops, portable chlorination systems for safe drinking water, farm equipment, business inventory, and sewing machines Moreau’s loans have helped to fund a wedding in Mongolia and even brought cold beer to a small store in a remote village in the Peruvian Andes by assisting in the purchase of a refrigeration unit. You can see a precise history of Moreau’s teams and their investments by visiting the handy www.kiva.org web site. Search for Moreau under Teams.
the class has funded a wedding in Mongolia, and brought refrigeration to a store in the Andes.
22 The Vector | Spring ’14